CHAPTER 189: CHAPTER 186: THE WATER IS GONE

Jiang Hu called out to Xiao Hei once more, and both the cat and the dog followed Xiaomi into the main house.

The main door was just ajar, not locked, so Xiaomi easily pushed it open and went in.

Leading Xiao Mi and Xiao Hei into her old sleeping quarters, the curtain had been taken down, but the window was still shut.

This place had become a blind spot for sight; feeling her heart stir, the kitty Xiao Mi in her arms disappeared, and with another touch, Xiao Hei also went into the space.

Putting Xiao Hei and Xiao Mi into the space was a decision Xiaomi made last night. She was genuinely worried that if they were left outside, they might be caught and eaten.

Besides, there were lots of things in the space, and it could save the family’s food and water too.

How should she explain this to her parents?

Haha, does she really need to explain?

Xiaomi flashed a sly smile; she wouldn’t explain anything. She would wait for her parents to ’discover’ the matter themselves, then play dumb and throw a big fit.

Xiaomi then pulled out a wooden basin from under the bed, which was the wintering place for nine little turtles that had been forgotten there when they moved.

Speaking of which, there were still a few bamboo rats, still being raised over at the new house. Bamboo rats ate grass roots and bamboo, and they drank little water, so they could be left for the time being.

The water in the basin hadn’t dried up, so Xiaomi directly scratched the turtles out from the mud, put them in the space to reunite with the others, and took the basin into the space too.

Just consider the basin stolen; otherwise, it would be hard to explain leaving a basin of mud, as no one else knew there were turtles inside.

After handling all these, Xiaomi left the room, wiping the mud off her hands onto the withered grass at the edge of the courtyard.

She looked up, her eyes met with a scene of wilting yellow, not even a hint of the wild grass that used to abundantly grow by the roadside.

Natural disasters and human calamities, such is the uncertainty of life.

Just when life seemed to be getting better, such an event occurred. Once this drought was over, everything would have to start from scratch again.

But this time, compared to last time, things would definitely be much better.

The rice was one thing, but there were thousands of pounds of sweet potatoes in the cellar, more than enough to set minds at ease.

Moreover, she had grown up; she was not like before, just a newborn baby who couldn’t do anything.

Thinking about this made Xiaomi’s mood better; humming a tune, she skipped and bounced away from the old house, seeing her father and Uncle Liu in the fields, and promptly turned her steps towards play.

The sorghum in the field was actually not bad; the drought hadn’t affected it too severely. It had been watered with manure when planted, and thoroughly so.

Unable to help, Xiaomi chatted with Uncle Liu on the side, her childish words making Uncle Liu burst into laughter.

At that time, Uncle Liu was also dressed in homemade coarse cloth clothes, made specially by Second Aunt from purchased fabric, so he wouldn’t stand out wearing his regular clothes during such tough times.

The pond was quite far away; two acres of sorghum, and two people spent two full days fetching enough water for irrigation.

Of course, because there were many fetching water, and the pond’s size was only so big, they had to queue for their turn to draw water.

Also, not knowing when the pond would dry up, they naturally poured more water when irrigating the sorghum.

The days passed by, with not a drop of rain, and the time had already reached the end of December; seeing that the New Year was approaching, everyone still celebrated and did their shopping as usual.

However, prices in town continued to rise, and several restaurants remained closed. Jiang Hu went to check on Tongfu Restaurant but didn’t find anyone, unsure of how Shopkeeper Liu and Master Zhang were doing.

The pond behind Fu’an Village also had the news spread, with people coming to fetch water day and night without stopping, from the beginning to the end of the month.

Yet by this time, the water level in the pond had dropped an additional four or five feet, hinting it wasn’t hard to guess that the underground water source had diminished.

The people of Fu’an Village also fetched two buckets of water daily for household use, without touching the previous reserves.

The Jiang family was no exception, because their well had also finally dried up completely in the middle of the month.

"Tomorrow is the 30th, Brother Hu, let’s soak some cured meat tonight to have a feast tomorrow."

Second Aunt took the cured meat from Jiang Hu, Aunt Yang carried it to the woodshed, and Qi Xi hung it up.

Jiang Hu chopped a few bamboo poles and made a rack to specifically hang the cured meat in the woodshed.

After curing, the meat was smoked with cypress leaves for a month. To avoid attracting attention, they smoked it only at night and didn’t light a fire during the day.

Aside from the village head’s family and Liu Yang’s family, not many knew about Jiang Hu’s pig slaughtering, not even wordy Liu Yang spread it around.